Google to pay Apple $20 billion in 2022

Not only is Apple suing antitrust authorities around the world, Google is also facing lawsuits for its monopoly position in the Internet search industry. In the course of these lawsuits, it became known that in 2022 alone, Google paid Apple $20 billion to make Google the default search in Safari. Back in November 2023, it became known that Google gives 36% of the profit from search in Safari, and now it has become known how much this amount is.

Google is opposed in this court by Microsoft, which wanted to agree with Apple to use the Bing search engine in their products, but Apple's Eddy Cue argued that Bing "cannot compete in quality and capabilities". The court will now decide whether the companies made their choice of search engine based on quality criteria or financial benefits from Google.

Google has been the default search engine on Safari browsers since 2002, before the launch of the iPhone, when Apple's computers were powered by PowerPC processors. But in some local markets, such as China and Russia, local search engines are used. In this case, the user can easily change the default search engine.

In Europe, the Digital Markets Act has already been passed, which obliges Apple to give users the choice to select a default search engine when they initially set up their phones.

If Google loses the antitrust case, the agreement with Apple will have to be cancelled. The last arguments in court will be heard by the end of this week, but the decision will be made later this year.

Source Macrumors.com